September 11, 2012

The Power of the Blog Part I: 25 Reasons Why Colleges and Universities Should Blog Smartly

Sep. 11, 2012 at 09:57 AM | By Marlysa Connolly | Comment Count

With social media, interactive microsites, and other digital marketing channels leading the way in developing content for student recruitment, it’s easy to forget about maintaining your campus blog. Neglecting to update and optimize your blog smartly can leave your communications and marketing efforts missing out on some great opportunities to connect with students, engage with parents, and increase your school’s social influence.

There’s no denying the power of the blog to disseminate information. But the blog is much more than just a blowing horn. It’s a vehicle to teach, connect, and inspire change. For institutions, a great blog can be the difference in attracting the “right” student or retaining a dispirited freshman.

This list of 25 Reasons Why Colleges and Universities Should Blog Smartly is the first in our two-part series on blogging. Part two will feature easy-to-implement formatting tips to optimize your blog for social sharing, readership engagement, and search engines.

To improve your institution’s thought leadership.
To connect with prospective students and parents looking for more information.
To engage with alumni.
To inspire change. Make a difference by taking a stance on a current event or campus concern.
To share faculty research and findings.
To provide information on upcoming events, study abroad opportunities, or administrative deadlines.
To showcase campus life and activities. Use major campus events like Homecoming or mid-semester exams as an opportunity to connect with your student body.
To target specific segments. This could be prospects, parents, current students, faculty, thought leaders, policy makers, etc.
To remain competitive. Regardless of whether or not you choose to maintain a campus blog, many of your competitors are. Powerful blog content will keep your school in the public eye.
To feature student and departmental achievements.
To champion a cause. Hosting a campus event for charity? Raise awareness with a blog post.
A big one: To demonstrate your institution’s brand and mission statement.
To collect feedback. The comments section is an awesome tool to gauge student voice and encourage conversation.
To provide an inside look at campus athletics.
To encourage academic success. Campus blog’s can connect students with other students operating much like a forum.
To quickly develop content to be repurposed by the media.
To quickly develop content to integrate into other communication and marketing campaigns.
To increase social reach. Social reach is the amount of influence your brand has in social communities. A high level of social reach not only aids in school visibility but also helps with search engine rankings.
To unveil upcoming campus improvements like renovations or new technologies.
To convey the benefits of joining student clubs or organizations.
To manage a crisis. Blogs are meant to be authentic, transparent, and purposeful. Plus, they offer a cost-effective way to transmit information fast. Be sure to include the campus blog in your crisis management strategy.
To offer career and job placement advice.
To provide relevant information to international students.
To extend your professional network.
SEO, SEO, SEO. Search engine optimization is the process of improving a website’s visibility, i.e. improving a websites ranking on search engines like Google. If you’re not going to smartly maintain your campus blog for any of the above reasons, please do it for this one. Successful optimization partnered with outstanding content will drive traffic not only to your blog but also to your website.